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Indian Electoral Commission seeks to link voting cards to Aadhaar

In December 2018 reports emerged that the Indian Electoral Commission would propose amendments to the Representation of the People Act 1951 that would require citizens to link their Electoral Photo ID Card to their Aadhaar number with the stated goal of improving the accuracy of the electoral rolls. The legal change was needed because two months earlier the Indian Supreme Court had ruled that Aadhaar could only be made mandatory for welfare schemes, Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards, and filing income tax returns. In 2015, the commission was forced to stop a similar voluntary programme, the National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP), after numerous court cases were filed. In the several months NERPAP was active, it covers nearly 380 million of India's 750 million registered voters. Almost all Indian parties support the idea that Aadhaar is the best tool for weeding out duplication and misrepresentation in the voter rolls, and Aadhaar is also considered critical to the plan to implement internet and proxy voting, as well as giving remote voting rights to domestic migrants.